Jokowi supporters report obituary ads to police

Sunggul Hamonangan Sirait, the head of law and constitution division of the pro-Jokowi movement (Projo), filed a report with the police on Saturday, following a controversial online post citing Jokowi's death entitled "RIP Jokowi".

Sunggul said at least three items could be categorized as defamation: The false death; the statement that Jokowi was of Chinese descent' and the use of the names Ir. Herbertus Joko Widodo and Chinese name Oey Hong Liong.

"This is the time to fight back," Sunggul said on Saturday, as quoted by kompas.com.

However Sunggul said he would not report the incident to the Elections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu) despite the controversial content.

Sunggul said the advertisement was likely the work of political rivals, in the hope it would distract Jokowi from his campaign.

Commenting on the report, Herdi Sharasad, from Paramadina University, said Jokowi's supporters' move to report the incident to the police was acceptable but would not do them any favors.

He said such strategies, attempting to "victimize" Jokowi were no longer effective.

"People are more intelligent that to pay attention to such victimization. It is longer an accepted political strategy," he said.